Edition No. 30
In this Edition
Arts and Culture
The Finer Pointes Art Contest highlights incredible local artists; Visit The Grosse Pointe Artists Association gallery space to view all eleven finalists and vote for a winner.
Community and Work
An article from Harvard Business Review stresses the importance of resisting old habits and routines when returning to the office after a year of remote work.
American Democracy
A recent opinion piece from The New York Times allows readers the opportunity to see and discover how politically diverse their neighborhood is.
The Finer Pointes Art Contest
Our friends at the Grosse Pointe News established a new contest to showcase and highlight incredible local talent. Open to all established or talented aspiring artists from the Grosse Pointes, Harper Woods, and St. Clair Shores, this contest allows artists of all genre to express themselves like never before. Art submissions were accepted in one of five genres: painting, drawing, textiles, sculpture, or relief.
Now here is where you come in! The eleven finalists are on display in the Grosse Pointe Artists Association gallery at The War Memorial. This is the public’s only opportunity to see the art in person before a winner is selected. The winning piece will be permanently installed in a prominent public Grosse Pointe location. You can vote for your favorite during gallery hours or on the Grosse Pointe New’s website.
The gallery is open 2-6:30pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays through June 3, but voting ends on May 15!
Image courtesy of Grosse Pointe Artists Association.
A Return to The Office: Resisting Old Routines
As the world slowly beings to return to a modified version of “pre-pandemic life,” more and more companies must decide whether to bring staff back into the office. With so many of us successfully working remotely for over a year, it is hard to imagine a return to the workplace. A recent article from Harvard Business Review urges employers and employees to resist old habits and routines when returning to the office. The article suggests that the pandemic created a new opportunity for companies; they had to lower their resistance to change and thus shed dysfunctional practices they had acquired from normal day-to-day business. A four-step framework best helps leaders identify, retain, and sustain the positive changes brought about from working from home and implement them as employees return to the office.
Identify which new practices should be sustained.
Reduce the influence of symbols connected to old practices.
Openly discuss and resolve disagreements and misconceptions about the new procedures.
Turn new practices into habits.
Click or tap here to learn more about how you and your organization can implement these positive changes back into the workplace.
“Do You Live In A Political Bubble?”
Contained within the online version of a recent The New York Times opinion piece by Gus Wezerek, Ryan D. Enos, and Jacob Brown you will find a fascinating interactive device that allows readers to see how politically diverse their neighborhood are (or are not).
To test it out, we entered The War Memorial address — 32 Lake Shore Road, Grosse Pointe Farms, MI. We learned, somewhat to our surprise, that voters in our immediate area are split almost exactly 50/50 between Republicans and Democrats with very few — less than 1% Independents. We also learned that less than three miles away in Detroit there is a ZIP Code where voters split 97% Democratic and 3% Republican.
“It’s a lot easier to demonize people on the other end of the political spectrum if you don’t personally know many of them,” said Richard D. Kahlenberg, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation. “That’s not a healthy situation for the country.”
Follow the link below to the Times piece. Once there, enter your address in the space provided and scroll down to learn more politically speaking about the place where you live. Keep scrolling and you will find a well-researched essay with strong infographics about the extent, origins, and potential consequences of America’s political segregation. Click or tap here to read the article. Please note: subscriptions may be required to access the full article.
About the study authors: Gus Wezerek is a writer and graphics editor for the Times. Ryan D. Enos is a professor at Harvard University who studies politics, geography, and psychology. Jacob Brown is a graduate student at Harvard University.
Inspired Thoughts is a collection of highly curated content that embraces the spirit and purpose of The War Memorial: arts and culture, community enrichment, leadership, and patriotism.
Derived from the notion that learning from others is the key to success, Inspired Thoughts is meant to shine a light on those making a difference in the world around them. This collection features artists, poets, writers, architects, and every thought leader in-between. Inspired Thoughts is the strongest reflection of what The War Memorial stands for, and what we aim to be.
The content featured on Inspired Thoughts is curated by War Memorial leadership — we also look forward to featuring special guest curators in the near future. If you are interested in providing content for Inspired Thoughts, please email our Communications team at jkaminski@warmemorial.org.